[Significance of the specialized treatment clinic for the rehabilitation of diabetic patients].
Since January 1, 1986 all our diabetes mellitus patients have participated in a structured diabetes education programme of two weeks duration. A systematic review of 260 diabetic patients treated by us up to June 30, 1987, has shown that only 25 (9.6%) had been suitably informed about their disease. Necessary therapeutic consequences, such as strict dietetic measures, additional insulin therapy or intensified conventional insulin therapy, were more readily understood and accepted after the education course. The basic conditions present in a specialized rehabilitation clinic are more favourable in view of good longterm metabolic control than in the acute hospital or in general practice.